How much does a hair salon website cost?

The four ways salons usually get a website

Most salon owners end up choosing between four routes. Each has a different mix of cash, time and control.

| Option | What you pay | What it costs you in time | Best for | |---|---|---|---| | DIY website builder | A monthly plan, plus a domain | High: you design, write and update everything | Owners who enjoy tinkering and have spare hours | | Freelancer | An upfront build fee, then hosting and per-edit charges | Medium: you supply content and chase edits | Salons with a clear vision and a reliable designer | | Agency | A larger upfront project fee, often a retainer | Medium: meetings, approvals, revisions | Multi-location or high-end brands | | Done-for-you monthly plan | One flat monthly fee | Low: you approve and request changes | Owners who want it handled |

The costs owners forget to count

The launch price is only part of the picture. Before you choose, add up what you'll pay over a full year:

• Domain name. Renews every year. Make sure it's registered in your name or that you can get it if you leave.
• Hosting. Some builders include it; most freelancers pass it on to you.
• Edits. Prices change, a stylist leaves, you add a keratin treatment. Ask what each change costs and how fast it happens.
• Your own time. An evening spent fighting a page builder is an evening you're not doing the books or resting before a ten-hour day behind the chair.
• Booking tools. If you use a separate booking platform, that's its own subscription.

What drives the price up

A few things push a salon website from simple to expensive:

• Custom design from scratch instead of a clean, proven layout
• Lots of pages, such as a separate page for every service and every stylist
• An online store for retail products
• Custom photography and video shoots
• Complex integrations with booking, payroll or inventory systems

Some of these are worth it for a large salon. For a two-to-eight chair salon, most of the value comes from a fast, clear site that shows services, prices, stylists, reviews and a book button.

What a salon website needs to do for the money

Whatever you pay, the site should earn it back by doing a few things well:

1. Show up when locals search for a salon or a service like balayage
2. Show your service menu with "from" pricing so people self-qualify
3. Introduce your stylists and their levels or specialties
4. Display your Google rating
5. Take a booking or consultation request on a phone in under a minute
6. Explain deposits, patch tests and cancellations before anyone books

If a website does those six things, one or two new color clients a month usually covers it.

A predictable option

WebsiteHandled is a flat $97 a month with the website, domain and hosting included. It's built from your Google listing and live within 24 hours. Requests from the form go straight to your email with a calendar invite when someone asks for a time. Quick edits like a price change or new hours are handled on request, and bigger changes, like a new section or a redesign, are done through a $99 Growth Session.

Questions to ask any provider

• Who owns the domain?
• What happens to the site if I cancel?
• How fast are small edits done, and what do they cost?
• Is hosting included?
• Will it work well on a phone?

The bottom line

Don't compare launch prices alone. Add up the domain, hosting, edits and your own time over a year, then pick the option that keeps your site accurate without eating your evenings.